Matching the Colour of Two Shots in Premiere Pro CC

Probably, one of the most tedious and time-consuming aspects of colour grading is matching two (or more) shots that belong to the same project. Consider a situation when you have filmed the whole piece with two different cameras. The best approach would be to match the settings of the two units as close as possible while filming.

However, if you’re not able to do that for some reason, you can still try to match the shots in post. Just remember that this may be more complicated and time-consuming than you might think. And, if you are using a camera with a poor codec often it can be impossible to get decent results. Here are some of the options you have when dealing with this type of footage in Premiere Pro CC.

As Jordy from Cinecom.net points out, the process of matching two shots is nothing more than looking and comparing. For instance, you need to look at different elements of your shots such as the sky, the grass, the clothing of your subject, the skin tones, etc. Once you can compare and adjust the correct levels, you’re right to go.

But, before you start off with the process you should be able to see both shots side by side. To do that, go to Window in the main menu of Premiere Pro CC, scroll down and select Reference Monitor. This way you’ll be able to display the two different clips next to each other. Select the shot that you are about to colour correct and access the Lumetri Color Panel on the right.

Further, here’s the suggested order of doing your color corrections. The three main settings that will have the most impact on your images are color temperature, exposure, and saturation. But all of these parameters will influence each other. Therefore, it’s important to change these settings accordingly. As recommended, you should start tweaking the exposure and contrast first as these both will influence the saturation. Next you have to modify the saturation. And finally, you can change the color temperature if required.

You can use all Lumetri controls that can affect the above settings. You can play around with the Vibrance and Saturation under the Basic Correction tab, or the Hue Saturation Curve under Curves Tab, or the Temperature and Tint sliders under White Balance tab, etc. Your final goal is to make both shots looks as if they were captured with the same camera and make these match as close as possible. Unless your both cameras shoot Raw, it might be an overwhelming challenge, but even with a poor codec on both cameras, you can still achieve decent results. Just try different approaches and see what works best for you.